


These Patchwork Lives

by gakorogirl



Series: Hearts Like Autumn Leaves [2]
Category: Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gakorogirl/pseuds/gakorogirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy and "Red" Harper are sent to retrieve renegade vigilante Jason Todd and return him to the Watchtower for monitoring. He has much bigger problems than a few mercenaries- world-destroying, all-powerful, eldritch problems.</p><p>Jason is the last warrior of All Caste, and he has nightmares that are silver and red like metal and blood. Essence has been banished from her home for years, but still bears a reluctant loyalty and a desire for revenge on the ones who killed the only family she ever knew. </p><p>The Roy Harpers are not and never have been the best team players, always moving on and leaving behind friends and loyalties. Chris, a damaged clone of Superman, has trouble speaking in front of others, and is marked as something Other by his inky eyes and growling breaths between too-long teeth. </p><p>And Koriand'r of Tamaran was sold into slavery by her sister, only breaking free of her chains a few too-short years ago. She will never be free of the scars on her wrists and her ankles, but she will never be chained again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Libraries and Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy Harper has never been a team player, but he gets along pretty well with himself, and with the Kryptonian clone they stole from Cadmus. They work for money, usually, but when Nightwing calls in a favor it's not a good idea to say no.
> 
> Meanwhile, Jason has started trying to put back together his life. These few days of peace won't last long, as darkness looms on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are! Thank you so much to everyone who left kudos and reviews on the first fic in this series, Red As The Shadow of Death, and thank you to anyone reading this! <3 I'll be posting updates every week or so, if I can manage it, and reviews are always appreciated!
> 
> A few notes- Red calls himself "Red" to avoid confusion with the original Roy, although most people still refer to him as Roy when he's not with the original. You'll be getting backstory on them next chapter.
> 
> Match's civilian name is Chris because Chris Kent doesn't exist in the YJ universe and the name fit him pretty well.
> 
> Roy- the original, that is- doesn't know Dick's civilian name. Therefore, he's usually referred to as "Nightwing" while everyone else is referred to as their actual names rather than code names.

**The** **_Constellation_ **

**Somewhere Over Utah**

**October 12, 07:00**

Roy fiddled with a few wires under the control panel of the  _ Constellation _ , quietly swearing at the ship in particular, and all Reach technology in general. He ignored the fact that most of his weaponry was reverse-engineered from Reach technology. Chris was playing with some kind of puzzle made of interlocking pieces, struggling not to crush the plastic shapes with his superstrength. Now and then, he sipped from a mug of hot chocolate.

“You doing okay there?” asked Roy.

Chris dropped the puzzle onto a table and signed,  _ fine.  _ His scowl said otherwise, but Roy decided not to argue. “Let me know if you need anything,” he said.

The onboard communicator beeped, and Roy reached over to activate it, still focused on the wiring. Something sparked, and he frowned.  _ Might need to replace that. _

“You’ve reached the  _ Constellation.  _ This is Arsenal.”

“Morning, Roy.”

“Virgil?” Roy’s mechanical fingers tapped over a few keys and Virgil’s face appeared on the  _ Constellation’s _ holographic screen. “Been awhile since we talked.” Chris moved silently to stand behind him, and Virgil’s eyes widened.

“Heard you’d found some kind of Kryptonian clone,” he said. “Didn’t think it could be true, though.”

Chris growled quietly, and Roy rested a hand on his arm.

“What do you need? Don’t tell me the Team’s decided to let me back in.” In fact, he thought he could see a few members of the Team behind Virgil, leaning over his shoulders and trying to see what was going on.

“Um, no. We have a bigger problem. Is Red Arrow there?”

“No.”

There was a fumbling on the other side of the screen, and suddenly the view shifted to Nightwing. “Arsenal. Where’s Red Arrow?”  
“Probably at home. He's been gone a few weeks now.”

_ Visiting his family,  _ Chris specified.  _ Should be back in a few more days. _

Nightwing nodded thoughtfully. “We’ve got a mission for the two...er, three of you. I’m going to send the relevant information over this channel. I assume you’ve got it secured?”

“Nothing on  _ this  _ planet could hack the  _ Constellation’s  _ communications systems,” replied Roy. Immediately, data began to stream into the computer banks, and he plugged his mechanical arm into the central computer to download it.

“You’ll need to share that with Red Arrow when he gets back. He can give you more background.”

_ So it’s something to do with the time I was iced,  _ thought Roy.  _ Interesting.  _ His arm beeped, and he unhooked it from the computer. “Not too much information here,” he said.

“Sorry. We don’t know too much.”

Nightwing’s face vanished, and the holographic screen dispersed a few moments later, revealing  a view of the rocky ground spreading out to the horizon. A few roads snaked across the flatlands. Roy stepped back, frowning. “You think we should go pick up Red now?” he asked Chris, who nodded.  
  


**Metropolis**

**October 21, 13:00**

“A  _ library?”  _ Roy repeated. “Our target, the murderous unstable mob boss, is working at a  _ library?  _ And more importantly, it took us over a week to find him? _ ”  _

“He’s going to be hard to get out of there,” said Red, ignoring Roy’s protests. “Libraries tend to have quite a few potential witnesses.” He pulled up the schematics of the Metropolis City Library, spinning them on the holoscreen.

“Just bring Chris,” said Roy. “He can probably handle being on the surface for a few minutes.” Behind him, Chris frowned doubtfully. The surface was full of humans who brushed up against him, and thousands and thousands of heartbeats and shouting and weird smells. He would have preferred to stay on the  _ Constellation. _

Red looked at him questioningly. “Libraries are quiet,” he said helpfully. “And we wouldn’t be there for long.”

Slowly, Chris nodded. He didn’t think he’d ever been to a library before, although he knew what they were from the information already stored in his head when Roy and Red had unfrozen him.

“I’ll drop you in that grassy bit behind the library,” said Roy, turning on the  _ Constellation’s  _ cloaking device. He’d really have to figure out how to improve it, since you could still see the ship out of the corners of your eyes. Maybe adding some kind of Martian biotech. 

_ What will you do when we’re gone? _

A slow smile spread across Roy’s face. “Test out the new weapons system on that big pretentious sign on the Lexcorp tower.” He fiddled with the controls and they swooped behind the library, settling quietly onto the grass. “See you later.”

“Later, Blueprints.”

_ See you soon,  _ Chris said.

 

**Metropolis City Library**

**October 21, 13:10**

“This month’s book is  _ Here, There be Dragons,”  _ said Jason, without looking at the schedule. He’d memorized it already- you learned to memorize things fast when you worked with Batman. The thought of Bruce sparked a small burst of rage, but it was manageable, and Jason tamped it down. “I think we have a copy or two still available, if you’re interested in reading it and coming to the teen book club on Saturday.”

Someone tugged on his sleeve, and he glanced down to see a very small girl with sandy hair and lopsided glasses. She’d been hanging around the library for the past few days, so often that Jason had become worried. (Apparently, her parents just...left her at the library for extended periods of time. She seemed fine with it, and he’d made sure she had enough food.) “Do you have any more cookies?” she asked hopefully.

“Not right now, Caroline. Maybe after my-” He looked up, and froze. “Actually, here’s a granola bar. Be sure you eat it outside, they’re crumbly.”

Walking into the room was none other than Roy Harper, looking hardly any older than he had the last time Jason had seen him, five years earlier. Behind him was a bulky kid in sunglasses who would’ve looked a lot like Conner, if Conner had had an undercut and wore yoga pants. Deep cover, maybe? _Or another clone,_ Jason thought.  
“You’re a hard man to find,” said Roy, by way of introduction. The not-Conner kid was looking around, clearly interested, and picked a book off of one of the shelves to page through. He didn’t seem to be paying much attention to anything around him, but as Jason spoke he inched closer.

“Well, if it isn’t Roy Harper, Mark II,” said Jason, his hand slipping inside his jacket towards his hidden pistol. Roy flinched. “You ever find the original?” Jason continued. “I wouldn’t have gone looking for him, myself. They’d just replace you as soon as they got the real one.”

“That’s not what happened,” replied Roy quietly. “I found him, all right.”

“I assume he’s with the Team, then.”

“Nah. Got himself kicked off. Actually pretty fun to be around, once you get past the whole trigger-happy thing.” Roy leaned on the desk, surveying Jason’s face. If you darkened the eyes to a sapphire blue, rounded out the hollow cheeks, erased a few years- oh, it was him all right.

Chris set down the book and walked over, taking off his glasses and folding them carefully. His eyes were clearly visible, black scelera and luminous blue irises, and he smiled threateningly at Jason.  _ Not human,  _ Jason thought, slowly tilting his head. Probably this was some kind of Kryptonian clone, but he couldn’t be quite sure. He leaned forwards, speaking in a low voice.

“If you’re trying to intimidate me, it won’t work. I’ve got a pocketful of Kryptonite and a loaded pistol, and neither of you are hauling me off to the Watchtower or wherever the Team is working out of now.” 

The corners of his vision wavered, and a dark-robed girl with braided white hair appeared at the edge of Jason’s field of view. “ _ Choose them,”  _ she whispered, and vanished. He sighed.

“We’re not...quite working with the team,” started Roy.

“Great,” said Jason, with a too-bright smile. “How do you feel about saving the world?”

 

**Metropolis**

**24 Hours Earlier**

The girl was wrapped in a black cloud like a gathering storm, her braided silver hair trailing on the floor behind her, and her voice was deep and soft and ancient. “Jason, a moment?” 

Jason turned, startled. “Essence?”

Essence’s form wavered like a heat mirage before solidifying, the trailing black clouds gathering into a form fitting bodysuit that glittered with silvery nebulas. The dark kohl around her eyes was smudged as though she had been crying, but her face was cool and expressionless.

“The Untitled have returned. The Acres of All have been devastated.”

“That’s not possible,” said Jason, rising to his feet. “The All Caste is without any known equal, nothing short of an alien invasion could do something like that. Ducra and the guards-”

“Gone.”  
Jason’s face grew taut and sharp, 

“You don’t stand a chance,” sighed Essence. Her onyx eyes softened slightly, starry points of light appearing in their glassy surfaces. “I'm sorry.”

For a moment, Jason stared at her blankly, black and white hair falling over his eyes. He stepped forwards, and Essence threw out her arm to block his path. Her silver-white braids floated around her. “You cannot defeat the Untitled alone,” she said.

“You can help me,” said Jason. Anger was pumping through him, burning and wild and restless. “We'll go to the Acres of All-”

“I am not welcome there,” cut in Essence with a trace of sadness in her voice. “I doubt I could even enter the sacred grounds.”

Frowning, Jason said, “The return of the Untitled...that’s bad news. I sort of know some heroes, I'm sure they would help if the situation was this bad.” Thinking of recruiting the rest of the Team made him grimace. (Would they even believe him? Probably not. No doubt they'd think his plunge into the Lazarus Pit had given him delusions.)

“I will help you,” said Essence, “as much as I am able. But you will need mortal assistance as well.” She vanished, turning back into a cloud of black smoke that was whisked away on a breeze coming through the open window.

 

**Metropolis**

**October 21, 14:00**

“I mean, we've heard weirder,” said Roy thoughtfully. “I do live on an alien spaceship with a clone of Superman who really likes Owl City. Primordial shadows from the dawn of time aren't that bizarre, when you think about it.”

“Maybe before the dawn of time,” said Jason, who had changed into his jacket and faceless red helmet. His voice was slightly echoey and distorted. “We don't know much about them.”

“The problem is,” Roy cut in, “I don’t know if we can trust you.”

“I haven’t already shot both of you, poisoned the Kryptonian, and taken over the ship,” Jason said helpfully, and Roy rolled his eyes.

“You couldn’t if you wanted to. This is a Reach battle skiff, and unless you can read Reach glyphs you wouldn’t have a chance of piloting it. Besides, it’s coded to our genetic signature.”

“Well then,” Jason said. “You want me to show you something to back up what I’ve said?”

“Yes.”

The air in the ship seemed to waver, and Chris growled deep in his throat. A girl in black appeared, perched on the main control panel with silvery braids floating around her. “My name is Essence,” she said. “I’m one of Jason’s...friends. I trained with the All Caste before being banished, and I can tell you that everything he has told you is the truth.”

Chris turned to Roy, his back to Jason and Essence.  _ I don’t like her,  _ he said bluntly.  _ She smells like shadows. _

Lowering his voice a little, Roy asked, “Is Jason telling the truth?”

_...yes. At least I think so. _

“Good enough evidence for me, then,” he said, raising his voice again so Jason could hear.

Red, who had taken over the pilot's position in the middle of the bridge, said, “This sounds big. I'm going to call Jade and tell her I might not be back for a while.” He activated the holoscreen, and after a few minutes Jade's face appeared.

“Roy. This is a surprise, especially considering that you just left.” She sighed. “Bad news, I assume?”

“Maybe I just wanted to talk to Lian,” said Red, sounding hurt.

“She's at preschool, getting ready for their Halloween play. You  _ will  _ be here for that, won't you?”

“I’ll try to be. Something’s come up, something...important. Might take a few weeks.”

“You're going off to save the world and you didn’t invite me? Ah well. Let me know if you 'heroes’ get stuck.” And with that, she cut the communication and the screen vanished.

Red ran a hand down his face. “Maybe I shouldn't be on this mission,” he muttered. “Who knows how long it's going to take?”

“You've been at home for more than a month,” Roy reminded him. “I'm sure Jade and Lian won’t mind too much.”

“By the way,” said Jason, “I'm still not sure I really understand how you two get along so well.” He couldn't even think of Tim or Dick without a burst of uncontrollable anger, and they only shared a costume and a name, not genes or memories.

“It's a long story,” said Red with a shrug.

“Good story, though,” added Roy, tinkering with the navigation system. He stood up and turned to Jason. “I assume you have coordinates?”

Jason stared out of the window, hands folded behind his back. His pale eyes glimmered with an alarmingly manic light.

“The Himalayas,” he said. “We’ll fly until we get there.”

“What?”

“The entrance to the Acres of All shifts constantly, but I can sense it when we get near enough.” He laughed sharply, gratingly, and added, “This is going to be a long trip. Might as well get started on the story.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week, a little backstory on Roy & Roy! They might get their own fic after I've got this one done, depending on how much interest there is.


	2. Nu Squad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a long story, how they learned to trust each other (because if you can't trust yourself, who's left?), how they helped save the world from the Reach invasion, how they rescued the original clone of Superman from Cadmus Labs.
> 
> And this is only the beginning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter takes place two years before the main action of the story- a good portion actually takes place during Endgame. 
> 
> Red Arrow and Arsenal were assigned to the same squad (Nu Squad) during the final battle for Earth, although funnily enough I didn't actually know that when I started writing this chapter.

**Metropolis**

**June 20, 08:16, 2016**

“Guess we're a team,” said Roy.

“Probably they figured nobody else could work with us.” The clone paused, and Roy noticed that he looked worried, lips pressed into a thin line and gaze distant.  _ Is that what I look like? _

“Nervous?” he asked after a moment.

“I'd be crazy not to be,” said the clone lightly. 

There was a brief moment of silence while Roy picked his words before he asked, “Are you nervous about me?”

The clone didn’t respond, but he didn’t meet Roy’s eyes either.

“Your assignment is the second disruptor in Coast City. Please report to the nearest zeta-tube.”

“Isn’t that Hal’s turf?” asked the clone as they stepped into the zeta-tube. Golden light rushed around them, and as Roy started to reply the words were swept out of his mouth. He had never really liked travelling by zeta, with the feeling of dissolving into points of light before being suddenly reassembled. He staggered a little as they emerged.

 

**Coast City**

**June 20, 08:40**

**“** Look at that,” said Roy dryly as he regained his balance. “Premium seats for the end of the world.”

They had stepped out onto the roof of a skyscraper, dark thunderclouds swirling overhead and jets of flame shooting up from cracks in the pavement below. Lightning arced over the buildings and down to the street, casting an eerie, pale glow over the city.

“Guess GL just flies off the roof,” said the clone. “We'll have to take a trickier route.” He plucked an arrow from his quiver and shot it across the street, where it latched onto a glass window not far above the ground and pulled a cord taut behind it. “Come on!”

Roy grabbed the line with his mechanical arm and swung down, dropping to the street. “Coordinates say the disruptor is in the plaza up ahead,” said the clone.

“I'll take the drones.”

“I can handle the drones.”

“My arm laser is the best weapon we've got. I'll get the drones, you handle the disruptor.”

“Fair enough.” The clone pointed to the disruptor, a red sphere mounted on a pedestal in the center of the plaza with lighting arcing off of it. As the two approached, the Reach drones whirred towards them. 

The clone rolled to the side, running towards the device, and Roy braced himself, chewing the tip of his tongue in concentration before shooting the first drone out of the sky. It exploded in a shower of sparks and hurtled towards the ground, smashing a smoking hole in the side of a nearby office building. Before Roy could aim again, the second drone slammed into him, carrying him through the air. He tore at the drone, ripping out chunks of plating and wire. The drone spun out of control and smashed through a building, taking Roy with it. Pain shot through his flesh arm, and his head cracked against something as his vision went black.

 

**Coast City**

**June 20, 14:00**

Roy opened his eyes, gasping for air as he sat up. For a brief moment he feared that he would be in another stark white hospital with a few years missing off his life, but a panicked glance around him revealed that he was still safe- although there was a makeshift cast around his arm that hampered his movements.

The room was rundown, but not dirty, with threadbare carpeting, rickety tables and shelves piled with arrows, half-built weapons, and what looked like empty pill bottles. It looked almost like the kind of safe house...Roy would have... _ oh.  _

_ “ _ It’s over,” said the clone, behind him. “Or, I guess it is. Storms stopped a few hours ago.” Roy turned around, his head spinning with the movement, and the sofa he had been laying on creaked.

“Good work, um, Roy.” said Roy.

“If you want, you can just call me Red. I don't know if that would be easier, or-”

“You talk a lot,” said Roy with a wry smile. “Do I do that?”

“I talk when I have something to say. And I have a lot of things to say.”

_ Fair enough,  _ thought Roy. He would have answered the same way. “What is this place?” he asked, looking around.

“One of my old safe houses, from when I was looking for you.” Red grimaced and tossed a few glass items that Roy couldn’t get a look at- maybe broken bottles? pipettes?-into the trash. “ _ Really  _ old,” he muttered.

“Should we report back to the League?”

“They know we disabled the disruptor. Now sit back down. You have a concussion, and your arm’s broken.”

“That explains the cast,” said Roy as he sank back down onto the couch. “Got anything to eat?”

Red dropped a box of doughnuts on his chest. “I'll be back with some real food in a minute,” he added, hopping out the window. Roy flipped open the box and dug out one of the doughnuts. Powdered sugar- his favorite. Unsurprising, since Red had his memories up until age fifteen.

“You know, these are really unhealthy,” he called out the window.

A little less than an hour later, Roy heard fumbling at the door and sat up, his head spinning as he tried to aim his arm cannon. The laser was nearly out of charge, but he had enough rockets loaded to take out a small army.

“I’d prefer it if you didn’t shoot me,” said Red, coming in the door with a bucket of fried chicken in one arm and a greasy cardboard box that was probably some kind of cheap Chinese takeout in the other.

“Really? Takeout?” asked Roy, slumping back onto the couch.

“Hey, Jade is cracking down on what we eat at home. Apparently seeing me eating junk food all the time sets a bad example for Lian. I’m...really not sure she’s old enough to notice, but I guess it’s better to set a good example early.”

Red shoved the equipment- it looked like a half-built radio transmitter and a few trick arrows- off of the nearest table and set down the food. Something on his belt beeped, and he held up a hand. “Hold on while I get this. Hello?”

_ “Red Arrow,”  _ said Nightwing’s voice, distorted by static.  _ “Is Arsenal with you?” _

“We’re both here. He’s a little roughed up. Something wrong?”

“I’m fine,” called Roy. “Appreciate the concern, though.”

There was a long pause. “Hello?” said Red. “Nightwing, do you copy?”

_ “I’m here. There’s been...an accident. We’re recalling all units to the Watchtower. Can you get to a zeta-tube?”  _ As he spoke, Nightwing’s voice grew steadier, more professional.

“I think so, yeah. See you in a few minutes.”

 

(They had two funerals for Wally. At the funeral on the Watchtower, the holographic image loomed over the heroes gathered in the memorial garden. Roy thought he heard Nightwing whisper something about  _ not again.  _ Artemis was crying, and everyone pretended not to see.)

 

**Lexcorp Towers**

**December 23, 05:30**

Roy hummed under his breath as he carefully took apart the fingerprint-activated pad locking Lexcorp’s main R&D department. Every time he came- which had been more often before the Runaways had booted him out, but was still every few months- the security was a little tighter. Fortunately, Roy did like a challenge.

A few wires needed to be rerouted before the light above the pad flashed green, and Roy smiled as he the doors slid open. There shouldn’t be anyone in here at this time of night, he’d have a good thirty minutes before the morning shift arrived. Maybe one or two sleep-deprived interns, but he could handle them pretty easily.

And then the clone- Red- was standing in front of him, pointing an arrow at his head. Roy slowly raised his hands, and Red’s fierce expression relaxed as he loosened the bowstring, angling the arrow towards the ground. “What are you doing here?”

“The  _ Constellation  _ needed some repairs, a better power source. Figured I’d come and grab some supplies from here. You?”

“Industrial espionage,” said Red, pulling a flash drive out of his belt. “I’m getting paid a lot for delivering these to Wayne Enterprises.”

“What’s on them?” asked Roy, curious, but Red shrugged. 

“Not really sure. Nightwing tipped me off to the job, told me not to look at whatever was on the drive.” He frowned, turning the small device in his hands. “Never really listened to him before now, though. Want to take a quick look?”

Roy checked the time. “We’ve got just over twenty minutes before the morning shift.” Red plugged the drive into one of the nearby computers, which began to boot up.

“Hey, you should stop by for Christmas dinner. We’d be happy to have you,” he told Roy as a series of files appeared on the screen. “Most of these look like schematics for- wait, is that a  _ giant robot?” _

“These are for the Mercy androids, here,” added Roy, pointing to another set of schematics. “I didn’t know they had blades in their legs, too.”

Red frowned. “Most of these seem theoretical, just blueprints and notes. One folder left, I saw this one while I was downloading them. It was from a different part of the database than the others.” He clicked on it, and images filled the screen.

Conner fighting a boy who looked nearly identical to him, dressed in a formfitting white solar suit. The boy snarling into a security camera, his shirt torn away and a backwards “ _ S”  _ burned onto his chest. The scleras of his eyes were pitch black, and his irises glowed an eerie blue.

The boy in a pod, his face frosted over with ice and his eyes closed. 

“Another clone,” said Red softly.

“We have to find him,” Roy said, looking through the rest of the files in the folder, but Red frowned slightly. He leaned forwards to read over Roy’s shoulder.

“Says he’s unstable, dangerous. ‘Project Match. First attempt to clone the Superman. Failure. Subject is aggressive and impossible to control. Subject cannot speak, and shows little comprehension of human language.”

“All of those are true,” said a silky voice behind them. “I must admit, I expected to find the original Mr. Harper here, but the clone is a surprise.” 

“Luthor,” snarled both Roy and Red as they turned. Red ejected the hard drive and tucked it into his belt as Roy lunged forwards, pulling an EMP bomb from his own belt and hurling it towards the Mercy unit standing behind Luthor. In a fluid movement, the android leapt into the air, flipping forwards on her hands and landing on the far side of the room. When the bomb went off, most of the lights in the facility went dark, and the walkie-talkie that Luthor had been holding shorted out. Mercy was still standing, coppery hair falling over her eyes.

Roy lunged for Luthor with a feral snarl, and Mercy sprinted across the room far faster than any human would be able to move. She grabbed his mechanical arm and twisted it backwards, and he hissed as he lashed out at her head with a spinning kick. 

The moment of distraction gave him time to twist his hand enough to fire his laser into Mercy’s head, which exploded in a shower of sparks. A piece of shrapnel buried itself into a computer screen inches from Roy’s head, and he kicked the headless shell away from him as the grip on his arm went loose.

“That all you got?” he asked, turning to see that Red had grabbed Luthor in a headlock, wrenching his head back.

“Have you figured out yet that coming down here was a bad move?” said Red softly, savagely. Luthor’s mouth twitched in a small smile.

“Have you?”

Another Mercy appeared around the door, kicking Red in the head and sending him sprawling to the floor. Following her were half a dozen guards, armed to the teeth. “Nice guns,” said Roy as he faulted behind the computer banks in a spray of bullets. “Don’t think those are legal in the States, though.”

“Oh, they will be soon,” said Luthor mildly, rubbing a hand over his neck where Red had grabbed him. Behind him, Mercy pinned Red’s arms to the floor with one hand and shoved the gun barrel of her other arm under his chin. Roy grabbed the gun from the closest guard and swung it like a club, smashing the end into the man’s skull.

Luthor seemed amused. “I heard your little group of runaways was absorbed by Nightwing’s team,” he said conversationally as Roy grappled over the heads of the guards, landing at a run. He twisted and fired one of his missiles at the guards, who were thrown backwards by the explosion of shrapnel.

It wasn’t entirely true, but after Virgil and Eduardo had signed up with the Team, it had looked like Asami was planning to go the same way. And Tye had never much liked Roy anyway.

Roy rolled on his side, sliding under a desk as- was that a  _ tranquilizer dart?- _ buried itself in the wall. If that was a tranq dart, it looked like it was made for a mammoth. No way he could shake off one of those. 

Three more darts peppered the desk, and Roy’s arm beeped to indicate that his laser was fully charged. He lunged out from under the desk, skidding on his stomach across the smooth floor as he fired at the guards. They scattered, diving behind desks and computers for cover as the laser carved a scorched line across the walls.

“I thought perhaps we could capture both of you alive,” said Luthor. His voice had a way of carrying, even through a firefight. “Your genetic material was one of our best-”

Roy couldn’t hear any more, blood rushing in his ears. The edges of his vision went dark, and he shuddered despite himself. One of the guards was close to him, pointing a tranq gun at his chest. There were three more behind the first guard, keeping a wary distance.  _ This is how it happened this is how it happened last time no no- _

With a desperate twisting heave, Red threw Mercy off of him and slapped a bomb onto her forehead, before sprinting towards Roy. Behind him, the bomb exploded, scorching a crater into the floor. 

As soon as Red tackled the nearest guard, Roy snapped out of his panic and leapt forwards, slamming his shoulder into the knees of the guard who had been pointing the gun at him and then whipping around to knock the feet out from under the remaining two.

“Nice work,” said Red as they stood back to back, ready for another attack.

“I think we got all of them,” muttered Roy. He looked around and then laughed abruptly, a sharp, dry laugh. “Looks like Luthor ran for it.”

“We should get out,” said Red. “I’ve got the drive.”

“What are we planning to do about Project Match?”

Red sighed as they slipped out of the building and into an alley behind the tower. He pulled the drive from his belt and tossed it into the air a few times. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “I can make a copy of the file at home, before I turn in the drive.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he added, “You stay over for Christmas. Then we’ll decide what to do.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this fic is completed I'll probably do a multi-chapter fic about Red, Roy, and Chris. 
> 
> Next chapter, coffee, the return of Lit Nerd Jason Todd, and Starfire! :D


	3. Poetry Over the Atlantic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris likes poetry- he uses it to help practice his speaking. One day he's going to read out loud to everybody, but for now he likes to hear other people read. 
> 
> Meanwhile, the Team sends a representative to keep watch over Jason- and report back if the Untitled situation gets out of hand. This representative happens to be a certain Tamaranean princess. Roy doesn't trust her.

**Somewhere Over The Atlantic Ocean**

**October 21, 23:50**

One of the holographic screens in front of Roy flared to life, and Nightwing’s frowning face appeared. “Arsenal. Red Arrow. Status report.”

“Um… we found Jason,” said Roy evasively. “There’s going to be some delay getting back, though.”

“This could be a problem,” muttered Red, who had been about to head into the hold and go to sleep. He stifled a yawn and was about to reply when Jason shoved past him, hair rumpled from sleep.

Jason stepped up to the screen and pointed at Nightwing, rubbing tiredly at his eyes with his free hand. “Listen, Dick. We’ve got a problem here.”

“What-”

“Pop quiz, who are the All Caste?”

“An ancient order of warrior monks. Not many of them left now, although Batman had a nasty run-in with an All Caste trained assassin seven years ago.” Dick’s response was prompt and crisp. “Why?”

“Harder question, who are the Untitled?”

“The- what?”

Jason sighed. “Check your fancy Justice League computers. Ask B-  _ Batman.  _ We’re dealing with an urgent situation here, and unless you can help I want you to keep well out of the way. Got it?”

Frowning, Dick said, “I’ll look into it. If you’re making up this ‘urgent situation’ I will come find all of you.” Jason rolled his eyes and cut the transmission. 

“I’m going back to sleep,” he growled. “Anyone who wakes me up is getting their teeth knocked out.”

Red checked on the course coordinates. “We should be over Spain in an hour or two,” he said. “I don’t like flying the  _ Constellation  _ over land too often, I don’t trust that cloaking device. We’ll fly across the Mediterranean and then southwest from there.”

“Good plan,” said Roy. “Go get some rest, I’ve got this.”

 

**The Mediterranean**

**October 22, 05:10**

Roy jumped as the holoscreen activated and Nightwing’s face appeared, looking nervous and haggard. “Arsenal. Is Jason there?”

“Nope,” said Roy flatly as he corrected their course. His sudden movement had caused the  _ Constellation  _ to buck and swerve to the side, nearly shorting out the fragile cloaking device. He checked to make sure everything was still working, and then turned his attention back to Nightwing. “You look up the Untitled?”

“I talked to Fate about them. Roy, these things are really bad news. I think this is more of a job for the Justice League, or at least the full Team.”

“I don’t know,” said Roy. “Everything about this job is...weird. Jason says the entrance to the All Caste headquarters moves around, and he’s going to sense it when he gets close enough. There’s a girl with him, Chris says she smells like shadows. She’s usually invisible.” He relapsed into silence, eyes fixed on the starry sky ahead.

“So what are you trying to say?”

“I’m saying Jason’s tailor-made for the job. And good luck convincing him to work with the League.”

Nightwing frowned. “Contact us as  _ soon  _ as you need backup.” He paused, thinking, and added, “Actually, I’m sending Kori to catch up with you. She should be helpful if you run into trouble.”

“We’ve got Chris.”

“Kori’s responsible and grounded. You’ll need someone like that to pull you out of trouble-none of you are exactly the sort to radio for help.” 

“Why don’t you just say you’re sending her to  _ spy on us?”  _ growled Roy. He reached out and disabled the screen, cutting off the reply. (Really, though, it might be useful to have another superpowered alien around. Even though Roy didn’t know her very well.)

He’d tell everyone else when they woke up, he decided. He really needed some coffee, so he set the ship to autopilot and left to make himself some. The coffee maker was part of the small kitchen that he had built into one wall of the bridge with help from Asami and Eduardo, and it was probably one of the most functional pieces of technology onboard the  _ Constellation. _

The hatch to the hold swung open and Jason jumped out in a fluid movement. “I heard voices. What’s going on?”

“Nightwing called,” said Roy. “Red still asleep?”

“I’m here,” said Red as he climbed the ladder. “I smell coffee.”  
“I’ll make you some. Jason, you want any?”

“What did Nightwing want?”

Roy huffed a sigh. “He’s sending us backup. Starfire.” Red’s eyes widened, but Jason’s face stayed impassive. He walked across the bridge and rested one hand on the glass, looking down at the scattered lights on the shore below them. They reminded him of something, he just wasn’t sure what.

“Starfire. Don’t know much about her. She’s an alien, right?”

“From the planet Tamaran. She’s only been on Earth for about a year,” said Roy. The smell of coffee drifted through the bridge as he reached up to pull a few mugs out of a cupboard. “Glowing skin, glowing eyes, hair like a solar flare,” he said. “Pretty in the face-melting-danger way of an atomic blast.”

“She’s got superstrength and flight, sort of like a Kryptonian,” said Red as he hopped onto the counter, feet just brushing the floor. “Jason, you drink coffee?”

“Not in the mood,” said Jason. “I’ll take black tea if you have it, though.”

As Roy dug around for a packet of tea, he added, “Her real name’s Koriand’r. Goes by Kori, most of the time. I’ve never really talked to her, but I saw her a few times during the Apokolips invasions.”

A  _ thump  _ behind them made everyone turn, and Roy’s arm whirred quietly as he clenched his fists. Chris, who had flown out of the hatch and dropped onto the deck, raised his hands with an apologetic expression. In one hand was a book, which he placed carefully into a cubbyhole in the wall of the ship.

_ Smelled your coffee,  _ he signed as soon as the book was out of the way.  _ I figured since everyone was awake I might as well come up too. _

“I’ll get you some hot chocolate,” said Red. 

Roy handed Jason a cup of tea and poured coffees for himself and Red. Jason walked over and picked up Chris’ book, turning it in his free hand. “Classic poems,” he said. “You doing some reading before bed or something?”

Chris shrugged.  _ I like poetry,  _ he said.  _ Poems remind me of music. I use them to help practice talking out loud.  _ He paused and added hopefully,  _ Could you read one?  _

“He likes hearing the poems out loud so that he’s sure he pronounces everything right,” said Red, stirring a few spoonfuls of sugar into milk. He broke a chocolate bar into squares and dropped them in, stirring slowly as the milk started to bubble. 

“Sure,” said Jason, opening the book to a random page. He flipped through a few poems before a smile, brighter and more genuine than his fierce and frightening grins, spread slowly across his face. “Here we go,” he said.

_ “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, _

_ And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold, _

_ And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, _

_ When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. _

 

Jason’s voice deepened and strengthened as he read, until it sounded as if he were nearly singing. Red set down his mug and raised his eyebrows, impressed. “I should get him to read to Lian,” he said softly to Roy, who barked a quiet laugh.

When Jason finished, Chris applauded enthusiastically. Jason smiled a little awkwardly as he moved to set down the book. “I, um, like reading out loud,” he said. “Maybe I can do that again sometime?”

Something slammed down onto the front of the  _ Constellation,  _ and the ship shuddered to a stop. Roy rushed for the controls before realizing that it was Koriand’r, floating in the middle of the sky and holding the  _ Constellation  _ in place with one hand. In the other hand, she held a...sparkly pink suitcase? He squinted at her as she waved smiled brightly at them, leaning forwards to peer through the front viewport.

“I’m opening the airlock to let her in,” said Red. He pointed to Kori, then at the side of the ship, and she nodded vigorously before flying around to the airlock. Red tapped a few buttons on the controls, and after a moment Kori stepped in, with her suitcase in tow. Her hair rippled out across the bridge, glowing red at the roots and brightening to a burning gold that dazzled Roy’s eyes. Unsettled by the alien girl’s pupil-less green eyes, Chris hissed under his breath.

“Hello,” said Kori, looking around. “It is good to know that you are all awake, Dick thought you might not be.” She smiled brightly, then recited as if she had memorized it. “My superhero name is Starfire, but you may call me Koriand’r or Kori. I am a Tamaranean.”

Jason looked at her with some interest- he’d never even  _ heard  _ of a Tamaranean before. She looked about seventeen or eighteen, lean and hard and long-limbed. Athletic. She was wearing layers of some kind of gauzy lilac stuff that floated around her ankles and trailed in long, loose sleeves behind her, but underneath the transparent sleeves he could see old, greying scars. A glance at her bare feet, drifting just above the deck of the  _ Constellation,  _ showed the same scars, raised and pale against her deep bronze skin.

_ Shackles. Must have been on for months at least, maybe years, to leave marks like that.  _

“So, the girl’s rooms are kind of unused,” Roy was saying. “Haven’t had anyone in there since… well, for a long time.” He shrugged. “I’ll show you down there and then you can get set up.” 

Kori followed him down the hatch, and after a minute he popped back up, using his mechanical arm to effortlessly lift himself back onto the deck. “Okay,” he said grimly, “We need to loose her somehow.”

“No,” said Essence, materializing behind him in an inky cloud.

“Could you just maybe stop doing that?” snapped Roy. “Nightwing sent her to  _ spy  _ on us. Probably specifically Jason, but we all know he doesn’t trust me either.”

_ I doubt he trusts me,  _ said Chris with a humorless laugh.  _ I’ve tried to kill one of his best friends a few times.  _

“You couldn’t help that,” said Red. 

_ I don’t know,  _ Chris said, and picked up his hot chocolate mug, staring down into it. A small conversation that they’d had a thousand times before, that always ended in the unanswered question of  _ could we help it? _

“Anyway,” Roy interjected, “We need to ditch the princess.”

“She could be useful,” Essence argued. “Her powers are strong, although similar to those of the Kryptonian. And she has great light within her.”

“If Essence says we need Koriand’r around, I say we let her stay,” said Jason. “After all, it’s not like we can just leave her by the side of the road somewhere. She can fly. And stopped your ship in midair with  _ one hand.” _

_ She’s coming,  _ Chris broke in urgently, stomping on the floor to catch everyone’s attention. A moment later, Kori burst upwards through the hatch.

“I did not receive many details about this mission,” she said, perching on the edge of the kitchen counter. Her hair floated behind her in a glowing cloud, and she took a few strands in her scarred hands and began to braid them together. “Nightwing only told me that you are on the trail of an ancient evil.”

“The Untitled,” said Jason, his voice grim. “Primordial shadows from the dawn of humanity. For centuries, they’ve held an uneasy peace with the warriors of the All Caste, but a few days ago an Untitled- or maybe more than one- breached the sanctums of the All Caste. We’re going to see the aftermath of the battle, and hopefully pick up the trail of the Untitled who destroyed the ancient order."   
“I see,” said Kori. She pointed at Essence, still drifting in the corner of the bridge and inspecting the ship’s controls with her blank onyx eyes. “Who is that?”

“My- companion. Essence.”

Essence nodded. Her clothing had changed from a starry superhero-style bodysuit to more traditional clothing, with heavy boots and a cloak trimmed with white fur. Her hair remained the same, falling over her shoulders in silver braids. “I  _ was  _ the daughter of Ducra, the leader of the All Caste,” she said in a soft, bitter voice. “Despite myself, I find that I have some lingering loyalties towards the All Caste, and I am helping Jason search for the Untitled assassin.”

Her body wavered, fading into the darkness.

“Nice girl,” said Red sarcastically, and Chris laughed. Jason narrowed his eyes at both of them. 

The silence lingered for a few long, awkward minutes, and Kori continued to braid her hair as Roy and Red sipped their coffee. Chris shifted his weight from foot to foot before offering Jason the book of poetry again.  _ Could you read something?  _ he asked.  _ It’s too quiet. _

“Let me see if I can find anything,” Jason said, turning through the pages. They were well-worn, starting to come apart at the edges from being handled so many times. “What’s your favorite?” he asked.

Chris shrugged and leaned over Jason’s shoulder. He tapped a page, and Jason nodded. “You want to read it, or should I?”

_ You do it,  _ said Chris with a nervous glance at Kori. She hopped off the counter, her hair now woven into a fair semblance of Essence’s braids, and came over. “Human poetry,” she said brightly. “I am excited to hear some.”

“I don’t need the book for this one,” said Jason. He handed the book back to Chris and sank cross-legged to the floor, eyes closed. With his face so peaceful, he looked far younger, less full of anger and pain.

_ “ _ _ Out of the night that covers me,  _

_ Black as the pit from pole to pole, _

_ I thank whatever gods may be  _

_ For my unconquerable soul.  _

 

_ In the fell clutch of circumstance  _

_ I have not winced nor cried aloud. _

_ Under the bludgeonings of chance, _

_ My head is bloody, but unbowed.  _

 

_ Beyond this place of wrath and tears  _

_ Looms but the Horror of the shade,  _

_ And yet the menace of the years  _

_ Finds and shall find me unafraid.  _

 

_ It matters not how strait the gate,  _

_ How charged with punishments the scroll,  _

_ I am the master of my fate, _

_ I am the captain of my soul.” _


	4. The Acres of All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason remembers when he first came here, the odd sanctuary half-in and half-out of another plane of existence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ouch, I haven't posted for a really long time. School's been a little hectic, and I'm applying to colleges too. So updates might be a little more irregular. Anyway, I love reviews!

**The Himalayas**

**October 22, 13:00**

“We’re getting close,” said Jason, pulling his helmet over his head. He turned to Roy, who was eating a sandwich and arguing with Red over something- probably still the princess. She didn’t seem to notice at all, floating on her back underneath the glass roof of the bridge and staring up at the stars. “Hope you have autopilot on this thing, because we’re going to jump out.”

“First of all,” Roy said, the full force of his sarcasm lost behind a mouthful of turkey, “If I didn’t have autopilot we’d be all dead, because I’m back here and Red’s back here and our genetic signature is the only one the ship recognizes. Second of all, what kind of crazy-”

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” said Red darkly. “If we jump out of this ship and die, Chris won’t be happy. I reckon the Team won’t be too pleased either.”

Chris growled under his breath, drawing very close to Jason. Jason tensed, ready for action, but did not flinch as the Kryptonian loomed over him. After a moment, Essence appeared next to the airlock. “May I open this?” she asked. “I feel that we are nearly on top of the Chamber of All.”

“Go ahead,” said Roy as he shouldered on a parachute. Red followed suit, throwing open a closet and grabbing coats for both of them. Essence opened the airlock, and wind howled through the  _ Constellation.  _ Roy tapped a few buttons on the control to instruct the ship to stay in place as snow flurries whipped across the bridge.

“I think the temperature in here’s dropped about thirty degrees,” growled Red between chattering teeth. 

“Let’s go,” said Jason. He took a deep breath, balancing on the tips of his toes for a minute before hurling himself forwards out of the plane. Behind him, Roy and Red jumped out, and Kori, Essence, and Chris drifted after them. Kori swooped down underneath him as he opened his gliding wings (a design that he may or may not have copied off of the wings he’d seen pictures of the replacement Robin using) and the updraft of air heated by her burning hair pushed him up higher into the sky.

“Are we close?” she asked.

“Almost there.” Jason flipped in midair, pulling up in front of a craggy wall of gray stone. By narrowing his eyes and turning his head slightly to the side, he could see that the stone wavered like a mirage, revealing glimpses of the waterfalls and forests of the All Caste’s headquarters hidden behind it. He dived forwards, ignoring Roy’s angry protests in the background, and the rock wall faded away.

 

**The Hundred Acres of All**

**Three Years Ago**

Jason looked with some skepticism at the short woman in front of him. She was ancient, so wrinkled and gnarled she looked more like a tree stump bundled in colorful cloth than a person, and she carried a long staff decorated with blue stones. In front of him, Talia bowed deeply.

“Ducra,” she said. “I have brought you a new pupil.”

“A human  _ boy,”  _ said the old woman, in a voice that creaked like the wind once had through the trees outside Wayne manor  _ (no, don’t think about that, it makes you far too angry)  _ and she stepped forwards to take his hand and turn it over appraisingly. “Strong,” she said, and frowned. “Smells of the Pit.”

Turning to Jason, Ducra added, “Why do you not bow before your superior, pup?”

Jason tried to tug his hand out of the old woman’s wrinkled fingers. “When I see someone who’s my superior, I will.” The small fingers closed over his hand like a vise, and he yelped in surprise as he was yanked off his feet and crashed into the ground.

When Jason awoke, his modern clothes had been switched out for a loose tunic and pants and a fur overcoat, and he was looking up at a ceiling- no, at branches hung with wind chimes and bits of cloth. He sat up, wincing at the pain in his head, and gasped as a pair of inky black eyes in a very pale face appeared right in front of his own.

“Hello,” said the girl in front of him carelessly, apparently not realizing that Jason had almost snapped her neck. Her hair was twisted into silver braids that fell around her shoulders, and two swords were slung over her back. She looked about Jason’s age, or a little older. “My name is Essence.”

“Jason Todd.”

As Essence drifted back, Jason gasped, seeing that most of her body was composed of inky, billowing smoke. “You are a foolish mortal, Jason Todd,” she said, and laughed. “No one has spoken to my mother in that way for nearly ten thousand years. You should be dead where you sit.”

Perhaps Jason should have been alarmed by the ease at which Essence told him he should have been dead, but a year travelling around with assassins, soldiers, and mercenaries had totally desensitized him. “Why aren’t I?” he asked.

Essence shrugged. “Perhaps she found you amusing. There is something strange about you, Jason Todd-”

“You can just call me Jason,” said Jason, standing up. “Whoa,” he added, gazing at the land around him. Waterfalls and twisted trees gave way to temples fluttering with ribbons, and he was in a cave so large that clouds had formed around the ceiling.

“There is something strange about you. You smell like the Lazarus Pit, and your heart is so bright I can hardly look at you.” She frowned, gazing off into the distance. “Ah well,” she added with a small shrug. “All will be revealed eventually. It always is.”

 

**Present Day**

The great mossy boulders and mountain-trees looked as if they had been hacked with a great sword, and the streams were red with blood. “This looks like a damn massacre,” muttered Red, an arrow nocked to his bowstring.

“Where are the bodies, though?” asked Roy.

“Come on,” said Jason. His helmet showed no trace of an expression, but his shoulders were hunched as he made his way through the wreckage. “We have to get to the Chamber of All.”

“What is the Chamber of All?” Kori asked.

Jason sighed. “It’s the entrance, the antechamber, to the  _ real  _ Acres of All. This is just the mortal side of the Acres. On the other side of the Chamber, it gets...weird.”

“Weird how?” questioned Roy as he hopped over a fallen tree.

“You know that upside-down staircase room in  _ Labyrinth?  _ It’s like that, but a lot bigger, and more colorful. Trees floating in the air, spirit shrines that are upside down on arches above you. There’s monsters in there, too, and it’s full of traps.”

“Just fantastic,” said Red. “A trippy spirit world full of traps.”

“Basically.”

Chris sniffed at the air.  _ I don’t like it here,  _ he said.  _ What if the Untitled thing is still around?  _ He growled a little as Jason rested a hand on a looming boulder in front of them, revealing a glowing arch in the stone. They walked through, and the smell of death washed over him.

Corpses were strewn throughout the stone chamber, most particularly around a carved plinth in the center of the floor. The warriors were wrapped in furs and leather, and they laid in pools of dried blood on the cold stone. Spears and swords stuck up from their chests, pinning them to the ground. 

“Ducra,” whispered Jason, and ran forwards to a small form in front of the altar. He tore his helmet off, dropping it on the ground, then lifted her head to check for any kind of pulse. Her skin was cold, and her white hair spread around her like dandelion fluff.

Ducra’s gnarled lips fluttered, and silver-blue light poured out around Jason, washing over him with the smell of ancient spices- copal and amber and myrrh. Slowly, it coalesced into Ducra’s form, and she reached out and cradled Jason’s face in a small, misty hand. “The Untitled were here,” she said. 

“I gathered,” said Jason, fighting back a tear as he looked around at the carnage. “I’ll avenge you. All of you.”

“Always the avenging with you,” sighed Ducra, drawing back, and Jason reached for her with trembling hands. She frowned. “Find the Untitled who did this. Find what could have caused them to break the ancient truce. The Proctor should have information for you, if you know where to look.” 

And then she was gone, a few scraps of shining mist swirling up to the ceiling and fading away, and Jason stood alone and unmasked in front of the altar.

“We’ve got company!” shouted Roy, somewhere behind him. His voice sounded as if it were coming from very far away.

A dozen undead warriors exploded into the cavern, and the rocks rang with their warcries. Jason’s head snapped up, and he spun on the spot, kicking one of the undead in the chest. He vaulted on his hands, flipping over the altar to stand in front of Roy and Kori. 

“The guardians of the Chamber,” he said, grabbing the war-axe from the nearest warrior and wrestling it from her cracked hands. 

_ You don’t deserve to die like this,  _ he thought as he raised the axe. He flipped it in his hands, clubbing the warrior and knocking her backwards. She stumbled, flyaway strands of hair falling around her face.  _ These warriors have served All Caste for centuries. They’re better than most living people I know. _

“Jason, do something!” shouted Kori. She summoned a starbolt into her hand and fired it at the undead warrior, who was thrown across the chamber in a blast of purple light and crumpled, singed, in a heap. On the other side of the cave, Red was barely holding his own, even with Chris covering his back and firing short laser blasts from his eyes.

“I’ve got it,” said Roy, and before Jason could do anything he had leapt onto the altar and fired a rain of tiny homing missiles that zeroed in on the undead warriors. Within seconds, the missiles had found their mark, exploding into bright, firecracker explosions. One by one, the warriors fell to the ground, smoldering holes through their heads and torsos.

“Talk about taking out the trash-” started Roy, only to be cut off as Jason grabbed the front of his bodysuit and pulled him forwards, off of the altar. Jason’s pale irises seemed almost white, and icy cold. Nervous, Roy punched a command sequence into his bionic arm and the fingers crackled with electricity. 

"Put me down." Jason glanced at the energy arcing across Roy’s hand and slowly loosened his grip.

“They weren’t  _ trash,”  _ he hissed. “Those were my mentors. Some of the greatest people I’ve ever known.”

“Sorry,” mumbled Roy. At least he had the decency to look  _ ashamed _ , thought Jason as he turned away. He sat with his legs crossed and fists pressed together, face turned towards towards the ground with eyes closed. 

_ What’s he doing?  _ signed Chris, looking at Red.

Red signed back,  _ Looks like he’s praying. Give him a minute. _

“Right,” said Jason with a deep breath, climbing to his feet. “We’re going to find S’aru the Proctor. We’re going to find the Untitled. And we’re going to figure out why they’ve broken their truce with the All Caste. And  _ then,  _ I’m going to kill every last one of them.”

“When you put it like that it sounds easy,” said Red, pulling a few arrows out of the fallen bodies and tucking them in his quiver. Chris followed him, growling deep in his throat as he stepped over the corpses.

Jason chuckled briefly. “Then what are we waiting for?” he asked. “Let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter- memories. There'll be some trigger warnings on that one.


	5. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> S'aru the Proctor is three thousand years old, but his mind is still very like that of a child. And you know, he gets bored. And since the ancient order has been shattered, he might just take a peek at some memories that are sure to be interesting...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> eyo so extra trigger warning for this chapter only re: references to drug abuse

**The Chamber of All**

**October 22, 16:00**

S’aru the Proctor sat in the innermost sanctum of the Chamber of All, tossing a glowing bubble between his hands. When he heard the footsteps, muffled by the opulent carpets of his chamber but still audible, he looked up. Of course, he already knew that they were coming, but just as it pleased him to take the form of a child, it pleased him to pretend that he had not known the exact moment they would arrive.

“Jason Todd,” he said with a small smile. Jason looked the same as he always had, with his black and white streaked hair and pale eyes, but his cheeks were less gaunt and his skin had darkened to a healthier color. S’aru wondered if the boy had at last found some sort of closure for his death. Behind him stood two vigilantes- Arsenal and Red Arrow, two boys with the same memories, the same genetic pattern, yet different at their cores- an alien girl with flaming hair and a purple, gauzy gown that did little to hide the scars on her wrists and those written in her eyes- and another clone, a Kryptonian with eyes that looked as if someone had set fire to the sky until it was burning from the inside out. “I see you haven’t brought Essence,” he said.

“She could not enter the Acres of All,” said Jason. Then, continuing right to the point, he added, “Do you know what caused the Untitled raid?”

S’aru frowned, leaning back on his cushions. He tapped the top of the bubble and it vanished, and he picked up the stem of a pipe in his delicate fingers. “I know where you can find your next clue,” he said evasively. “The answers you seek will be found in the heart of the Hundred Acres of All, on the spirit side.”

Sighing, Jason said, “And I suppose you’ll want our memories as insurance?”

“For those of you who enter the spirit plane, yes,” said S’aru. “Your most treasured memory, to be kept as insurance and returned if you should survive.”

“I don’t like this,” growled the younger Roy Harper. He flexed his mechanical arm- a wonder of technology, although a spot of magic would greatly enhance it- and shifted on his feet, looking towards the older clone for guidance. The clone shrugged, almost imperceptibly.

“There are ancient laws in place to ensure that S’aru will return our memories intact,” said Jason, with a pointed glare at the Proctor.

S’aru raised a hand to his heart and bowed shallowly. “I swear that your memories will be returned to you in full, should you return here after finding what you seek,” he said formally. Jason stepped forwards, sinking to one knee, and after a moment Koriand’r and Christopher followed. The Roy Harpers hesitated for a moment before copying the movement, and S’aru snapped his fingers.

Blue orbs of fragile light rose into the air and began to orbit around S’aru, who could see brief flashes of color and fleeting glimpses of faces and buildings inside each of the orbs. “It is done,” he said. “Your memories are safe with me.”

“I don’t feel too different,” said the younger Roy Harper thoughtfully as he stood. S’aru smiled benignly and gestured to a door that opened beside him into the bright spirit world, and Jason and his… teammates? friends? it wasn’t like Jason to have _friends,_ certainly not this many, but they seemed to trust him more than was wise, as friends would- walked into the light and color on the other side.

S’aru caught one of the orbs in his fingertips, looking at it almost hungrily. “There’s no laws against looking at _alien_ memories, technically,” he whispered to himself as the door closed, and laughed a childlike laugh. He passed his fingers over the surface of the orb, marvelling at how differently the Tamaranean girl processed memories from a human mind.

**Koriand’r**

The shackles around her wrists and ankles were heavy, made from a burnished metal that cut into her skin and made it blister and tear. She limped through the mud, shouldering a basket of the white mineral that the Citadel so treasured. A wet, rasping cough shook her, and she shivered. Her arms were still speckled with red-hot needle marks from the experiments they had run on her the night before, the chemicals injected into her bloodstream. No doubt, this had caused her cough.

She slipped in the black, stinking mud, crashing forwards onto her face, and a few of the opaque white crystals fell into the slime. Fumbling with her shackled hands, she picked them up, and as she struggled to her feet she saw one of the Citadel watching her with something like pity.

He watched with something like pity, but he never raised a hand to help her to her feet or to ease her burden. She took a painful step, and then another, and she fell again, catching herself with her hands. Coughing racked her body, and the Citadel spoke, drawing a little closer to her.

“I am sorry on behalf of all my people,” he said in a booming voice. “A child like yourself should be free to run and play, not shackled like this.” She struggled nearly to her feet before she slipped again, and the Citadel took a hurried step back to avoid being splattered with mud.

And still, like all the millions of people on Tamaran, he did not move to help her. Words did not feed her, nor the thousands of slaves held captive on this world. She felt a fire burning in her blood, and for the first time in years she was strong enough to lift a little off the ground, toes just barely trailing in the muck. The Citadel took a step back, his eyes widening in fear, and she screamed a wild and feral scream and thrust her shackled hands forwards, and a power like several degrees of the sun burst out of her and the Citadel fell with a smoking hole through his chest.

At once, she was surrounded by guns and swords, pointing at her. Slowly, she sank back so her feet were in the ground again, but her eyes burned green and her hair blazed around her like a solar flare. _Their experiments_ did _change me,_ she thought, and smiled a sharp-toothed smile.

It was time now.

If no one cared to help her, she would help herself, she would help the other captives on this world, the only people who had been truly, unconditionally kind. She would leave a _burning trail_ through the Citadel’s foul empire.

 

 _S’aru snapped out of the memory, breathing hard. He wrinkled his button nose and frowned. “That was her most cherished memory?” he muttered. Oh well. On to the next alien… come to think of it, the ancient laws couldn’t be upheld when the order had been slaughtered. Maybe after the Kryptonian, he would look at just a_ few _more._

 

**Chris**

“Pretty,” said the little girl, pointing to his eyes. Her pudgy finger came very close to his eyelashes, and he jerked backwards, baring his overlong teeth. She whimpered quietly, pulling away, and he sagged.

 _Sorry,_ he told Roy-Red-Harper, sitting on the couch next to Roy-Arsenal-Harper, the younger one who smelled of a cryopod and had a hauntedness to his ice blue eyes.

“It’s okay. Lian, try not to touch Match, okay? He doesn’t like touching much.”

Match frowned, looking around the little apartment. _You have… a wife?_ he asked uncertainly. He hadn’t seen anyone here besides the small child and the two Roy Harpers.

“Jade’s...out of the country right now,” said Roy-Red-Harper. “So we’re taking care of Lian for a few days. I thought tonight we’d watch a movie, make some popcorn.” He smiled brightly, and Match’s Cadmus-programmed brain supplied _movie,_ a story in visual format presented on a screen, and _popcorn,_ a snack food made from hot maize, often eaten with butter and salt.

 _Sounds good,_ he signed.

“I want Pooh!” announced the small child- Lian. She scrambled up on the couch and bounced there, the springiness of the cushions throwing her in the air a few times before she settled. Match copied the action, bouncing himself up and down on the cushions.

“Seriously? We’re watching _Winnie the Pooh?_ Don’t you have anything better?” complained Roy-Arsenal-Harper. He threw his legs over the arm of the couch and stifled a yawn.

“Anything that holds Lian’s attention all the way through is good enough for me, unless _you_ want to keep her occupied.” Roy-Red-Harper stood up, taking a disk off of one of the shelves and turning on the television. “I’ll go get the popcorn ready.”

Match settled down on the sofa to watch the movie, which looked as if it had been hand-drawn _(animation,_ whispered his brain after a moment) and gazed intently at the screen. After a few minutes, Lian rested her head on his arm, and he frowned a little but stayed still.

 _Christopher Robin,_ he thought. It rolled off the tongue. He sniffed the air and smelled something rich and hot and buttery, and after a moment Roy-Red-Harper came into the room with a bowl full of fluffy white popcorn.

“Here you go,” he said.

 _Thanks,_ said Match. _You told me I should find a name,_ he added. Roy-Red-Harper raised an eyebrow. “You think you found one?” he asked, and Match pointed at the television.

“ _Pooh_? I don’t think that’s-”

Match shook his head.

“Um- Christopher? Christopher Robin?”

“He wants to call himself _Christopher Robin?”_ spluttered Roy-Arsenal-Harper through a mouthful of popcorn, sitting up. Lian giggled and imitated him, dribbling popcorn out of her mouth, and Roy-Red-Harper sighed and grabbed the bowl away from them.

“It’s not a very usual name,” said Red doubtfully. “How about just Christopher? Chris, for short. Christopher Kent.” He glared at Lian and Roy-Arsenal. “You’re cleaning that up,” he said.

“Chr- Chr- Christopher,” said Match, with a great effort. He liked the way it sounded on his tongue. “Chris-topher Kent,” he tried again. He wanted to say it out loud, at least once. “Chris Kent.” _I like it,_ he said, relapsing back into signing.

“Good,” said Red, squeezing onto the couch beside him. “Pass the popcorn.”

 

Roy and Red _, thought S’aru._ What an interesting pair. Truly, the same person, but they act as though they were brothers. _He wondered if their memories were the same. It wouldn’t hurt to look, not when the ancient order had already been destroyed. Besides, they were taking an awfully long time to get back. Probably dead._

 

**Red Arrow**

Okay. So, that hadn’t gone exactly as planned. He’d been travelling through Coast City, figured while Hal was gone someone needed to take care of local crime. Except his reflexes weren’t what they used to be- and now he was in a gutter. At least he’d scared off the thugs before collapsing.

Slowly, he became aware that it was raining on him. He probably had several broken bones that were just starting to hurt, to say nothing of the bruises he could suddenly feel on his arms and chest. And his stomach was twisting itself into knots.

After a while, he tried to stand, vision blurring. Someone grabbed him and helped him to his feet, and he vaguely saw gree. “O-Ollie?” gasped Roy, confused.

“What were you thinking, Red?” asked a halfway-familiar voice.

“H- _Hal_? Where’s Ollie?”

“You almost got yourself killed,” said Hal. Roy doubled over and retched, clutching his stomach. He gasped for air, blinking hard to clear his vision. For a moment, he focused on the rain on his skin, and then he spoke.

“Wanted to- I dunno. Wanted to do something useful for a change. You’re off doing space things all the time, nobody’s really taking care of Coast City.”

Hal sighed. “You can’t just lay here. I’m getting you somewhere safe.” There was a green glow as a giant hand wrapped around Roy, picking him up off the ground. He winced as his bruised ribs were squeezed together. If he was being honest with himself, some of those cracks and bruises might have been before tonight, his pain receptors were shot.

He was _really cold._ The realization made him think about the original Roy Harper, the one who was going to have a real life one day if he could just _find_ him. A decent life.

“Are you still looking for the, um, first Speedy?” asked Hal conversationally, setting him down on a rooftop. The sun was starting to rise in the east, sending long golden rays across the sky, and Roy flopped onto his back, digging his fingers into his stomach. The clouds were clearing, and he squinted against the brightness.

“Yeah,” said Roy. “Not having much luck with that, but I’m still working on it.”

“You won’t be much good to him like this,” commented Hal, very casually. “If you can’t even keep yourself alive, there’s no way you’re staging some kind of dramatic break-in to steal a frozen kid from the Light.”

Roy nodded, staring down at his feet as they dangled off the side of the building.

“Ollie’s worried,” said Hal. “We’re all worried.”

“What, that I’m throwing my life away trying to find the _real Roy Harper?_ Let’s face it, I didn’t have a life to start with.” Roy laughed bitterly.

“No, that you’re going to _die,”_ snapped Hal. “You’re going to overdose one of these days. You’re not helping yourself here, or anybody else. Or the original Roy Harper.”

Roy turned and blinked at him. “You’re not going to tell me that he’s dead?”

“No,” said Hal, “But why don’t you tell me why _you_ think he’s alive.”

“Have you been taking lessons in therapy from Dinah?” asked Roy dryly. “Even though everyone says he would have been killed as soon as he wasn’t useful, the Light- especially Luthor- don’t just throw away assets. Eventually, they’ll need a human subject for something, and it’s handy to have one already tucked away in a cryo pod somewhere.”

“Fair enough,” said Hal slowly. “I’ll poke around some, tell you if I hear anything,” he added in a brighter voice. “Try not to die.”

 

**The Chamber of All**

**October 22, 16:25**

“ _None_ of these are amusing,” grumbled S’aru. Suddenly, the door opened, motes of light swirling out into the stone chamber.

"Oh!" he exclaimed. "You made it."

“A snow globe,” announced Jason, tossing the offending item in the air as he stepped through the door with the rest of his team following him. He caught it again deftly, and frowned at the scene inside. “We were almost eaten by a metal dragon the size of a skyscraper for a snow globe.”

“Give us our memories back,” said the younger Roy aggressively. S’aru nodded and handed out the orbs, still glittering and bright as though they had never been touched. First to the two Roy Harpers, then to Koriand’r, then to Chris. As they touched the orbs, there was a burst of blue light as the memories returned to their proper places. He was cupping Jason’s memory in his hands to give back, but the boy shook his head.

“I’m better off without it,” he said, and walked away, tucking the snow globe into a pocket of his leather jacket.

S’aru frowned for a moment before calling, “Look more closely at the globe. It may show something of use.” As Jason walked away, he turned the glowing memory in his palms. It was a long, long time since he'd looked at a memory that was willingly given. 

To his credit, he waited a few minutes, until they were out of sight, before he laid back on the cushions and opened the orb, letting Jason's memory wash over him. Willingly given memories were so much more  _vivid_ than the ones he only stole glimpses at, and this one smelled of warmth and popcorn (very like the Kryptonian's memory) and the pages of an old book.  _Let's see what you were willing to leave behind, Jason Todd._

**Jason**

_“It was a star," Mrs. Whatsit said sadly. "A star giving up its life in battle with the Thing. It won, oh, yes, my children, it won. But it lost its life in the winning.”_

Jason sniffled a little and sneezed, glancing at the clock. Nearly time to go on patrol, he'd lost track of time a little while he was reading- and he dropped the book onto his bed and scrambled to pull on his costume, sneezing again and blinking as his vision blurred. He fumbled for a moment, grabbing a tissue from the box next to his bed and breaking into a coughing fit as he dashed down the stairs, nearly tripping over his cape.

 _Late late late,_ he thought, between coughs.

"Jason," said Bruce, frowning, "Are you feeling-"

"I'm fine," snuffled Jason, and coughed again. He hadn't gotten sick since he'd lived in Crime Alley, but if he could deal with it there then he could deal with it on patrol. "Come on, we've got some bad guys to catch," he added, bouncing on the tips of his toes and trying to smile. His grin turned into a wince as his joints ached, and he groaned a little.

Alfred sighed. "Master Jason, you look terrible," he said bluntly, and crossed the cave to rest the back of his hand on Jason's forehead. "And you're running a fever. I think he should stay home," he added to Bruce.

"Alfred's right," said Bruce as Jason nearly doubled over coughing. "You're sidelined tonight."

* * *

 

 _“They are very young. And on their earth, as they call it, they never communicate with other planets. They revolve about all alone in space."_  
_"Oh," the thin beast said. "Aren't they lonely?”_

Alfred set a tray down in front of Jason- soup, crackers. Boring food. Jason scowled and wriggled deeper into his nest of blankets, holding onto his book. "I can take care of myself," he protested stuffily. 

"Then I wish you would, Master Jason," sighed Alfred.

"Taking a night off once in a while isn't a crime, Jason," said Bruce's unexpected voice at Jason's side, and he startled, sitting up. He'd expected Bruce to have been long gone by now. Confused, he tried to stand, and Bruce put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back onto the couch. "Neither of us are going anywhere," he said. "So, what are we watching?"


	6. Gathering Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first true appearance of the Untitled- and of another threat.

**Middleton, Colorado**

**October 24, 18:00**

“You’re sure this is where our Untitled is hiding out?” asked Red as he turned down the bartender’s third offer of a drink. Jason, meanwhile, was turning a beer between his hands, but hadn’t taken more than a few sips.

“I can feel it,” he said quietly. “I could probably track it down by looking through, say, police records.” He leaned forwards on the bar, frowning. “To get to the police records, though-”

Someone put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, and he turned, raising a dark eyebrow.

“Hey, patchy-hair,” growled a large man who seemed fairly drunk. Jason wrinkled his nose at the smell of cheap beer coming off the guy. “That’s my stool you’re sitting on.” Heads were turning around the bar, and a few equally large men- broad-shouldered, fairly heavy but not too muscular- came to stand behind the first. _Perfect,_ thought Jason.

His fists and feet flashed through the air and one of the men went flying over the bar, while three more were laid out on the floor, screaming in pain. Red spun in his chair, eyes widening as Jason delivered a savage kick to the solar plexus of the last man, who crumpled onto the ground with his friends.

“My apologies, sir,” said Jason with his widest, most dangerous smile. “You can have your stool back now.” He slammed his beer down onto the bar, sloshing the drink across the counter, and noted with a pleased smile that the bartender was crouched behind the bar, whispering into his phone.

Jason sat back down on the stool, tucking his feet up under him.

“I thought we were keeping a low profile,” muttered Red.

“I need to _talk_ to the sheriff,” said Jason. “Why don’t you rendezvous with Roy and Kori and see if they’ve seen anything weird.”

They’d left Chris to guard the _Constellation,_ since he hadn’t seemed comfortable with the idea of coming down to interact with people today. And Essence had been tracking another group of Untitled, off in Canada somewhere. 

Red nodded and stood up, slipping out of the bar. On his way out, he passed the sheriff, a young woman with a halo of dark curls and sharp yellow eyes like a cat _._ After a moment, he froze, looking over his shoulder. He’d become so used to Chris’ black scelerae and glowing irises, and even to Kori’s glowing green eyes, that he hadn’t immediately realized that the sheriff’s eyes weren’t those of a human.

“Any news?” asked Roy, huddled on a frosty bench outside. Despite his heavy coat and gloves, he looked miserable as a few snowflakes settled on his eyelashes. “It’s freezing out here,” he hissed. “I’m coming inside.”

“You don’t look anywhere near old enough to go into a bar, especially not one like that,” said Red. “Did you see the sheriff? Her eyes were-”

“I see her now,” said Roy, as the sheriff appeared in the door of the bar, escorting Jason in handcuffs. He winked at Red as he walked by.

_Not human,_ mouthed Red, and Jason nodded imperceptibly as he was shoved into the back of the police cruiser. “We should follow him,” said Red.

“Anything’s better than sitting on this bench for another hour,” said Roy, getting to his feet and shivering. “This town’s boring.”

“Where’s Kori?” asked Red.

 

**Fifteen Minutes Earlier**

Kori drifted through the air, catching a few snowflakes on her tongue where they prickled like tiny, cold pins before melting. She had tried to sit down next to Roy to help warm him up, but he had been so prickly that she’d decided to leave. The wind whistled between the buildings, and Kori floated up to the top of the church steeple. There was a bronze bell inside, and she inspected it curiously, brushing her fingers over the smooth metal.

Nothing was happening here. She wished that the inky-cloud girl were here, to fly with her. Something about the curve of her lips and the way billowing darkness trailed behind her reminded Kori of Komund’r. Her sister didn’t _deserve_ to be missed, but still…

Kori stiffened, sensing a change in the wind, and a moment later something huge and winged and scaly slammed into her, sending her tumbling through the sky. Huge, needle-sharp fangs snapped shut inches from her face. Kori twirled in the air and kicked the beast in the throat as she flew low over the frozen river, casting a glance over her shoulder as it roared and clutched its neck.

Was this, perhaps, the Untitled that Jason had spoken of? Probably not, Kori decided. This creature was wholly of the material world, not a mystical being of darkness and evil as Jason had described the Untitled. As the creature came in for another pass, Kori summoned a starbolt into each hand, and her pale skirts swirled around her as her eyes burned with a deadly flame.

“Come no closer,” she shouted. “Identify yourself!”

The green scaly thing landed heavily on the ice, revealing a fanged, batlike head, a long, thick tail, and a pair of wings that were membrane over bone and so vast they touched the treetops. “Alien scum,” it rumbled in a deep voice. “My name is Crux.”

“Despite the cowardice you display by your ambush,  I am honor-bound to identify myself,” said Kori as Crux drew closer. His lips curled back, revealing a mouthful of splinter-sharp teeth. “I am Princess Koriand’r from the planet Tamaran.”

Kori spun on the tips of her toes, hurling the starbolts at Crux. He lunged forwards, landing on all fours as the bolts barely glanced off of his thick scales, and roared as he sprung towards her. Before Kori could summon another bolt, his claws were wrapped around her, and they punched through the ice and into the freezing water below.

It was but the work of a few moments to untangle herself from Crux, striking out with her feet at his nose, eyes, and stomach. His jaws stretched open in a roar, releasing bubbles into the rushing water, and he struck again, this time wrapping his arm around her neck before exploding back into the air with a great beat of his wings.

_A worthy opponent,_ thought Kori, and listened as Crux began to speak.

“It was less than five years ago,” he rumbled. “I was in the car with my family, we were on our way home. It was dark,” he added, and his grip on Kori’s neck loosened a little. She waited, studying the pattern of his wingbeats, the weaknesses in his thick scales.

“A ship- a _Tamaranean_ war cruiser- it-it fell out of the sky, crashed into our car. A freak accident, it seemed. That… _creature_ didn’t even look back as it walked away from the crash, unharmed.”

Kori twisted her head upwards slightly, and saw that Crux’s neck was leathery and unscaled. A starbolt there would do considerable damage, as would an attack directed at his wing membranes. Most likely, that was her best bet.

“I studied for years, tracking down every alien that came to earth. I hid the crashed war cruiser and dissected it. Eventually, I realized that I could use alien DNA to my advantage, to-”

And Kori _moved,_ twisting herself free and grabbing Crux’s pulsing throat in one of her hands. She flipped in the air, heaving his bulk over her shoulders and slamming him down onto the ice. “To use your intellect to fashion yourself into a ‘living weapon.’ I’ve heard it all before.” She hovered above him, and a starbolt formed in her hand, dancing around her fingers. “I am sorry your family died. I am sorry you tossed your entire life away on something as pointless as revenge. But I will _not_ be punished for the crimes of others- X’hal knows I have committed enough of my own!”

She struck downwards, fire bursting from her mouth and eyes as she smashed Crux through the ice. He propelled himself downstream with a powerful wingbeat, and Kory frowned as she followed him.

 

**Meanwhile**

“Looks calm enough,” said Roy. He pulled the mitten off of his mechanical hand and punched in the sequence that would begin charging the laser.

“Laser won’t do much good,” Red reminded him. “Jason says copper’s the only thing that-”

“An industrial-grade laser can hurt _anything,”_ said Roy, but he pulled a few short copper-tipped arrows from his belt and locked them into his crossbow.

“Should we go in?”

“We could also just leave him here,” suggested Roy. “Go back to mercenary work.”

“You don’t really mean that.”

“I don’t,” said Roy with a small sigh.

And then the doors exploded open and Jason sprinted out, shoving his helmet over his head. “She’s coming,” he yelled over his shoulder as something dark and screeching and stinking of death burst out after him, leaping in a single bound onto the top of a flickering streetlight. Squinting up at it, Roy could see that it-or she- was still wearing the sheriff’s uniform, and part of one arm and one leg still looked nearly human. The rest, though, billowed out in a cloud of teeth and eyes and shadow.

Red fired an arrow, and the copper point tore through the Untitled’s head. It screamed, nearly loosing its balance on the light, and Roy narrowed his eyes and stepped forwards as he pulled back on his arm-mounted crossbow. "Hold still- unless you _want_ to get shot again," he said grimly.

"Bad idea," muttered Jason, taking a step back. 

_Prepare for suffering unimaginable,_ hissed the Untitled in a voice that ripped through the air like a rusty knife. 

"Why do I believe her when she says that?" asked Red nervously, pulling another copper-tipped arrow from his quiver.

More teeth and eyes appeared as it reached up and tore the arrow out of its dripping face, then dropped to the pavement with a wet thump. Tendrils of dark smoke coiled along the sidewalk, and as Roy took a step back he bumped into a snow-covered fountain. "Okay," he said quietly. His first instinct would have been to resort to the tiny missiles inside his arm, or the laser, or the new plasma cannon (although that one still needed some tinkering.) But  _no,_ they had to be fighting something that could only be hurt by copper.

Suddenly, a huge burst of light exploded from the north, temporarily illuminating the dusky sky with the brilliance of midday. The Untitled screamed, and Red and Roy staggered as they were blinded for a second. Only Jason was unaffected, his helmet filtering out the dazzling explosion, and when the brightness cleared he held a long copper dagger in each hand.

_All-Blades,_ the Untitled whispered, shrinking back and baring its teeth. Taking the opportunity, Jason sprinted across the courtyard with Red and Roy following, diving behind a low stone wall.

"That was Kori's energy signature," said Roy, squinting northward.

"And from the looks of it," added Red, "She expelled  _all_ her energy in one burst. One of your Untitled must have grabbed her."

"Not their style," said Jason tersely. He twirled one of the All-Blades in his fingers and glanced over the top of the wall, a burst of dark energy barely missing his head as he ducked down again. "And not our problem, right now. Eldritch monster, anyone?"

Red frowned. " _Of course_ she's our problem," he said. Roy shrugged, noncommittal.

The Untitled screeched somewhere above them, a sharp and grating sound like nails on a chalkboard. "Okay," said Jason quietly. "I'll stay here and deal with her. If you want to go-"

Before he could finish, Roy was already running. Red followed close behind, twisting to fire an arrow into the Untitled's gut. It screamed again, black smoke spilling from its fanged mouths, and Jason swung himself over the wall and landed like a cat with the All-Blades flashing in his hands.

"What the  _hell_ is that?" shouted Roy, pointing at a huge, winged shape slowly climbing into the sky.

"Don't know," said Red. He nocked an arrow and narrowed his eyes. "But I'm willing to bet it has something to do with Kori's solar flare. You try to find her, and I'll handle this...thing."

Roy nodded sharply and turned down a narrow alley, running northwards towards the river.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued!
> 
> Coming up in the chapter after next is a small Halloween special- I'm looking forwards to writing it. :D And then we get to Kori's arc, something else that should be fun to do!
> 
> ~Please leave reviews they are my lifeblood and source of motivation~


	7. Blood of the All Caste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She is the hope for an era free of the Untitled. He is the last surviving warrior of All Caste.
> 
> (Essence and Jay go off and save the world. Meanwhile, Red and Roy deal with a smaller, but nearly as dangerous, problem in the form of the mutant Crux.)

**Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah**

**October 24, 18:45**

They were close. Essence drifted through the air in a dark cloud, sensing the presence of the Untitled. There were many of them here, three or four. Troubled, she reformed into her human-like body and alighted gently on the road, frowning as she looked at the skid marks burned onto the cracked pavement. Out here, the roads were barely worth maintaining, and few cars ever passed by. She peered into the distance, the glow of headlights barely visible against the great expanse of the horizon.

And she followed swiftly, the smell of the dry salt wind heavy in the air around her as the moon turned the barren land to silver. As she came closer, she saw that the trucks were stopped by the side of the road, and there were people talking. Essence caught a scrap of their conversation-

_ “We’re out, boss. This has gone too-” _

_ “Do you know how the Life Hammer works?”  _

A scream, and a wave of malevolent energy that nearly swept Essence away. 

_ “-dead!” _

_ “-more objections? No? Well-” _

There was a roar of an approaching engine, and two men on a motorcycle came tearing towards her. Clearly, they were human, and they were terrified. But still, they had worked with the Untitled, and that was...unforgivable. Essence appeared in front of them, a black cloud roiling behind her along the road, and enveloped them.

Their bones clattered to the pavement, and she sighed. She took a precious moment to pick up one of the skulls, pressing the warm bone to her forehead, before she moved the bones into two neat piles by the side of the road. When her task was done, she could give them a proper burial.

**Middleton, Colorado**

Crux winged quickly over the town, his breath rasping in his throat. The  _ princess  _ had been even tougher than he’d expected, and the soft tissue under his chin was bruised and singed. Ah well- without her Tamaranean powers she would freeze to death within an hour or so, a terrible death for one of her kind.

Suddenly, a searing pain ripped through his ankle, and he roared and tumbled in the air. “An  _ arrow?  _ Who uses arrows any-” 

Electricity arced over him, and he plummeted out of the air, crashing down hard into the snow.  _ Not enough voltage to do serious damage to me,  _ he thought, rolling onto his back and trying to twist to extract the barb from his foot.

“Don’t move,” said someone out of his field of sight, and he twisted to see another arrow pointed at his forehead. Crux bared his teeth at the scowling human, a tall man with red hair and his eyes hidden behind a black mask. 

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“I could ask you the same thing. What are you, pumped full of Kobra-venom? That stuff eats you from the inside out.”

“I am  _ Crux.  _ The Kobra-venom formula is flawed. Mine is much superior.”

“Red Arrow.” 

Ah. Crux knew about the mercenary clones. The younger one, Arsenal, was one of the world’s unofficial experts on alien technology, and the one called Red Arrow was known as a force to be reckoned with by most of the international criminal underworld. Crux had run into trouble with them- not in person, of course- before. A shipment of illegal chemical compounds coming into the country had apparently been hijacked by both clones. It had set his schedule for production of the genetic formula back by  _ months.  _ He had known that the Tamaranean was travelling with Arsenal, but he’d thought the older one was still taking a break from the mercenary business.

“Now,” said Red Arrow, harshly. “What did you do to Starfire?”

“Alien scum,” coughed Crux. “Although- not so alien any more. You’ll find what’s  _ left  _ of her by the river, if she hasn’t frozen first.”

Red Arrow frowned, then abruptly changed the angle of his bow and fired an arrow into Crux’s wing, the point driving through the soft membrane and deep into the frozen earth. As Crux howled, another arrow ripped into his other wing.

“Now, let’s see. I’d hate to have to kill you, but you can’t be going around attacking aliens. You’ll cause some kind of interplanetary diplomatic incident. So, just stay there until I get back.” He leapt over Crux and ran towards the river.

Crux waited until the sound of the clone’s boots crunching on the snow had faded away before he began to work the arrows out of his flesh. Suddenly, another pulse of electricity burst from the arrows, and he screamed as his vision faded.

“Starfire?” called Roy. “Koriand’r?” He walked warily through the snowy forest- where there was one huge, scaly monster, there were liable to be more, and sure wasn’t planning on walking into an ambush.

As he stepped out of the cover of the trees, his eyes widened. “Starfire?”

She wasn’t moving, laying at the edge of the frozen river. Much more concerningly, she wasn’t on fire, and the weird golden/orange glow had leeched out of her skin, leaving it a dark tan that would have been natural on a human, but not a Tamaranean. Roy ran forwards, skidding down the slippery riverbank. 

“Are you alive?” he asked, not expecting an answer as he felt for a pulse. She was cold. Pulse was feeble, way too slow. 

“I hope so,” said Kori weakly, her eyes fluttering open. Roy fumbled with his utility belt for a minute before producing a portable heater and activating it, placing it on the snow. The small device hummed softly, radiating a golden warmth, and Roy sat cross-legged opposite Kori.

“I think you are kinder than you would like people to believe,” said Kori with a small smile.

Roy shrugged, leaning a little closer to the heater. It had turned really cold, really fast, and Kori was dripping wet besides. They needed to get out of here. “Can you stand _?_ ” he asked. “Looks like you’ve got hypothermia, you need to get to shelter and _fast_. _”_

“Perhaps,” Kori replied. She struggled to stand, holding Roy’s mechanical arm as she climbed to her feet.

“Okay,” said Roy, pressing the button on his belt that would bring the  _ Constellation  _ to their location. “Red’s on his way, he had to take down that thing that attacked you.” He frowned. “What happened?”

“A device that overloaded my powers,” Kori said. “I became unstable and was forced to shed the excess energy.”

“Yeah, we saw the flare from town. Jason found his Untitled thing, disguised as the sheriff.”

Footsteps sounded behind them. “I’m here,” said Red. “Crux is stunned, for now, but he’ll be here in a minute. We need to figure out some way to permanently deal with him.”

Kori coughed, a few sparks swirling from her mouth. “I think my powers are returning,” she said, letting go of Roy’s arm and staggering a step before she regained her balance. Her dark red hair began to glow again, a soft, warm light.

“You’re not okay yet,” said Roy warningly. He picked up the heater from the snow and turned it off, latching it to his belt again. Overhead, the thrumming of the  _ Constellation’s  _ engines heralded Chris’ arrival. 

Kori looked at Roy and smiled faintly. “Thank you, Roy Harper,” she said.

“Um, no problem.”

 

**Meanwhile**

The Untitled frowned as the Lazarus-pup plunged into the fountain, breaking through the thin layer of ice that had formed over the water. She approached, baring her splinter-teeth, but stopped just shy of touching the water.

One moment passed, and then another, and the Untitled shrieked in frustration, a high, drawn-out screech.  _ You can’t stay down there forever,  _ she hissed, and the words crackled through the air.

Under the water, Jason smiled, his eyes closed.

Time is irrelevant to the All Caste.

Forever is not as long a time as it seems (and wouldn’t you assume that  _ death  _ was forever?)

_ He remembered, long ago, water nearly as cold as this around him, pressing for an opening into his lungs, slowing his heartbeat to a slow, slow pulse. There was no use in counting the minutes until he could come up. Instead, he let his mind drift into a pearly grey void, nearly darkness but not quite. _

_ And then strong hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up into the light, and he gasped a deep breath of mountain air that seemed to tear at his lungs and throat. _

_ “Did I do it?” he panted, falling forwards on the smooth stones that bordered the pool. Ducra nodded, a smile breaking over her weathered face. _

_ “No human has completed the cleansing in centuries,” she chuckled. “But I know not if you’re more worthy than the others, or just more stubborn.” _

_ “Either way,” shrugged Jason. He wished Essence were here, and he frowned a little as he thought of her banishment. When he left the All Caste, he would look for her, before he killed- killed- _

_ “Ducra,” he said uncertainly, “Something troubles me. I still want to kill the Joker. I want to clean up Gotham, by whatever means necessary.” His voice dropped, becoming harsh and dangerous. “And I want Bruce to pay for not avenging me. It’s all I can think of, all that I  _ am. _ ” _

_ “Ah, pup. Did you expect the madness to subside so easily?” asked Ducra. “I only hope we have given you the tools to overcome it, one day.” _

_ “Maybe,” replied Jason. _

_ “Trust me, pup. One day, your heart will shine brighter than the dark fury inside of you. And that day will be glorious.” _

Jason was underwater, under ice, on the bottom of the fountain. His hands were growing numb, and he tightened his grip on the All-Blades before slicing them across his sides, his blood swirling red in the water. The runes on the polished blades glowed a brilliant ruby red, and he leapt upwards, spinning in the bitter autumn air as the blades gleamed. Outside the water, he could feel the waves of evil emanating from the Untitled, but his veins were burning with power.

“I am the last of the All Caste,” he said coldly as he landed on the edge of the fountain, the Untitled retreating before him. 

_ You’ve been tricked,  _ she snarled at him, her voice trembling a little.  _ I had no interest in war, I was merely- _

“I don’t care,” said Jason, raising the All-Blades. Blood ran down his hands, still warm and wet, but rapidly cooling. Before long, he’d have to fuel the blades again, and he really didn’t want to do that so soon.  _ These creatures need to be wiped out,  _ he thought, and leapt forwards. He stabbed again, and again, and again, through the Untitled’s smokey body, and she screamed and fell backwards.

_ Not- me- _

“Be quiet,” snarled Jason, and she lay still on the cobblestones of the square. He took a deep breath, sitting back and wincing at the pain in his sides. He was about to sheathe the All-Blades when someone behind him shouted, 

_ “Look what he’s done to the sheriff!” _

Jason swore under his breath, jumping to his feet.

 

**Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah**

“Hello, Uncle,” said Essence, appearing from the darkness. The Untitled, still clutching the Life Hammer in his hands, looked up from the body he was standing over and bared his teeth, sharper and more jagged than those of any human.

“You dare to challenge me?” he hissed, eyes fully black, like spilled ink, but without the glimmering galaxies that shone in Essence’s pupils. “ _ Whelp,”  _ he sniffed, and energy pulsed out from the Life Hammer, tearing through the sky like negative light.

Essence’s smoky form vanished, and the Untitled growled to himself as he turned back to the truck. He faltered, sniffing the air. “Whelp?” he snarled, turning in a circle.

“Your touch has corrupted the weapon,” said Essence’s voice, carried all around him by the wind. Dark and sharp and beautiful, she appeared on the roof of the truck, and her silver hair drifted in a cloud around her. The Untitled flinched back, fear etched on his face. “As Jason might say, it’s _ full of sound and fury,  _ nothing more _.  _ But I- I am Essence.”

Her silver swords shone almost white in the moonlight as she swooped forwards, one blade driving into the Untitled’s chest. He screamed, clawing at her with dark-tinged fingers that passed harmlessly through her insubstantial form.

“I am the hope for a brighter future,” said Essence, dark eyes gleaming as she struck with the other sword, and the Untitled’s head fell to the ground as his body crumpled, bleeding black on the salt. “And  _ you,  _ at long last, are no more.”

Police sirens sounded in the distance, red and blue lights flashing brightly, and Essence sighed. She moved forwards, reaching for the Life Hammer, but it crumbled at the brush of her fingers. And she folded herself in black smoke and disappeared, a misty shadow flitting against the brilliant stars.

 

**Middleton, Colorado**

“We’ve got a problem!” yelled Jason’s voice through the  _ Constellation  _ intercom.

“You reckon this’ll be strong enough to drug Crux?” asked Roy, holding up a vial for Red’s inspection. “Elephant tranquilizer.” With Chris' help, they'd been able to drag the unconscious mutant into the  _Constellation's_ hold, but nothing could keep him unconscious for long.

“Hang on a second. Jay, what’s wrong?”

“Our Untitled left a parting gift- an angry mob that didn’t realize I just killed the monster living among them! I need emergency extraction  _ now.” _

Kori frowned. “Couldn’t you explain what happened?” she asked.

“Less babbling, more getting the  _ hell  _ out of here!” shouted Jason. “And where would I even  _ start? _  'The sheriff was an eldritch monstrosity from the dawn of humanity, sorry? ”

Kori said quietly to Chris, "He talks much more when he is troubled." The Kryptonian nodded gravely.

“Hang on, we’re coming to get you,” said Red. “We’ve got an additional problem- the big scaly monster that took out Starfire. From what she tells us, he’s an alien hunter, and we can’t just set him loose.”

“Killing him isn’t an option?” asked Jason. There was a brief pause before he added, “Joking. I have a plan. Now  _ get me out of here!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the comics, Essence refers to the Untitled's weapon as "sound and fury" but I always thought that was a little odd, given the fact that the phrase is very Western and the All Caste are like...warrior monks. So I figured it's probably something Jason said at one point and explained to her later.
> 
> Next chapter will feature Jade and Lian, as well as scary movies and way too many zombie jokes.


End file.
